


Grandpa Tends To Jade

by Classpectanon



Series: Three Hundred And Sixty Five Ficlets About Homestuck [42]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29365386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Classpectanon/pseuds/Classpectanon
Summary: The man who would be known, when she could speak, as "Grandpa Harley", was, in all respects, a doddering old fool.42/365
Relationships: Grandpa Harley | Beta Jake English & Jade Harley
Series: Three Hundred And Sixty Five Ficlets About Homestuck [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085684
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Grandpa Tends To Jade

The man who would be known, when she could speak, as "Grandpa Harley", was, in all respects, a doddering old fool. He possessed immense wealth with which he pursued only the most ignoble of passion projects, collecting paintings and mummies and knights from some sort of half-remembered childhood interface, like some sort of ghostly procession instructing him what he should be burning his vast dollar bills on. Occasionally, an investment paid off, and he spread the money throughout Skaianet, sharing the wealth to two people he had favored - a vivacious, young scientist, and a man from Texas, exceptionally skilled with a sword. And the rest of his employees, of course. He was no communist, of course (nobody was, in his childhood, lest bad things happen, an attitude he carried with him since), but he understood well enough that a well paid employee was a happy employee, and a happy employee worked miracles.

Right now, though, in a tower, on a secluded, volcanic island, with an immense dog stalking him at all times (not in an unfriendly fashion - just stalking), he was not an investor, or an inventor, or a CEO, or anything of the sort. Not even a hunter, or a collector. He was simply a grandfather, nothing more, nothing less, and he had a charge that had to be taken care of.

Obviously, it was not an easy task to take care of a very small child all the time. So rarely had Grandpa taken care of any of his children (of which he was sure dozens existed, almost certainly), but instead hired others to do the task for him. Not this time, no, some little voice in his head told him, in a very knowing way, that this one was his to take care of, even though this one was found in a meteorite, and not sprung forth from his loins in the traditional fashion. Somehow, she felt all the more... legitimate? As mean of a term as it may be to apply to a helpless child.

Perhaps this was bad of him to think to himself.

Perhaps this was penance, although for what, he could not say, but it certainly felt like it.

Jade slept mostly soundly in his arms - she was a peaceful child, bright eyed, sparkling with curiosity. On several occasions he had to prevent her from sticking forks into electrical outlets, mostly because he told her once to not do it, and as a result, the small toddler became obsessed with the idea, just so she could see what would happen if she did. Already, she had abandoned the need for a bedtime story to be read to her, although she did need Grandpa's larger, more robust hands to flip pages for her, pages of engineering schematics, photographs of rocket ships. Occasionally, he dragged the very small television up to her room and they would watch Carl Sagan together, or Bob Ross (but she preferred Carl Sagan).

Today? There was none of that. The little princess, all tuckered out from a frantic dash all about the island, pulling flowers from the ground, collecting frogs in buckets, sitting down at flat stones to dissect leaves down to the artery and vein with small, sharp rocks and her fingernails. Hands caked in mud, overalls stained with chlorophyll, he sat on the foot of her bed, his old bones weary but years of strongman behavior giving him enough to rock the growing tot, back and forth, in the dim light, curtains closed. He was never much of a singer, which is why he had transportalized a vinyl player up to her bedroom so it could sing to her, telling her about the virtues of being nothing but a hound dog, and the like.

Jade snored, so quietly and softly. He plucked the glasses from her face like one would extract a dandelion from the ground, folded them without leaving a smudge or smear on the large, round lenses, and placed her onto her stuffed animal mound at the head of the bed, steadily growing in size every week.

He pulled the blanket up over her shoulders, tucking her in, quiet and gentle. He put her glasses down on her nightstand, gave her two pats on the head, and took the transportalizer out as quietly as he could.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. All views, kudos, comments, and bookmarks are appreciated.  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/classpectanon)


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